With its easy, turn-based multiplayer action, Hero Academy is a strategy game …

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If you crossed the asynchronous multiplayer component of a game like Words With Friends with a simple but engaging turn-based strategy game, what you'd end up with would look a whole lot like Hero Academy. This free-to-play iOS game, developed by the same team behind Orcs Must Die, is an excellent way to get in some satisfying strategy gaming in quick bursts. Just make sure you have some friends to bring along.

Hero Academy

The actual gameplay is fairly simple by strategy game standards, though this does make it easy to pick up and play. Each player has a crystal or two to defend, and whoever has his crystal(s) destroyed first loses. Units—which fit into standard roles like healer or archer—are doled out like a hand of cards. After each round of placing units, your hand is then replenished with a random assortment of new ones. But your hand consists of more than just warriors and mages: you'll also be able to outfit your units with weapons and armor, and there are one-time use spells and healing potions.

You get six moves per turn, and the game kindly shows you how your moves will play out before they're finalized thanks to a handy reset button. This is especially useful early on when you're still learning how various units and items work.

Hero Academy

Just like in Words With Friends and similar games, you have to wait for your opponent to see that it's their turn and put in their own move before you can play again. It's a perfect set-up for groups of friends that enjoy playing together but that don't have the ability to coordinate live multiplayer gaming. It it also means, however, that having a group of dedicated friends to play with is also pretty much a requirement. You can play with strangers as well, of course, but it's not really the same.

Hero Academy is a free download, but it isn't the sort of title that's riddled with annoying messages pushing you towards in-app purchases. The game doesn't offer the ability to purchase stronger units or weapons to ensure a better chance at victory, as some other free-to-play titles do. Instead, you can buy some cosmetic items—customizing your team's icon or colors, for instance—as well as the $2 Dark Elves faction, which features a different but not necessarily stronger set of skills. It's sort of like buying an expansion pack to breathe some new life into a game you didn't even have to pay for in the first place.

The combat in Hero Academy is simple enough for most players to pick up easily, but there's enough depth to make each quick round surprisingly satisfying. The only trick is making sure you have a group of friends to play with... and who will take their turn in a timely manner. Otherwise you'll spend much of your time waiting instead of actively playing.

I'm only playing against random players (nobody I know), and it's still fun. I only play at the end of the day, so those poor people are waiting up to 24 hours for me to make my move, but I have received no complaints so far. The games do take longer that way.

@nicosharp - The audio thing is a bug we know about, and there should be a fix in the next update. That said, for the time being there is a work around. If you close the app entirely (on the task bar), start your music or other audio, then launch the HA app fresh, your audio will keep working while you play. It just needs to be started before the app for the time being.

The only thing that sucks about this game is that it kills music you have playing when you enter and exit the game. It's one of the only apps I have used that does this. Fun game though.

I'm glad this will be fixed in the next update, but until then, you can fix this problem yourself:- Return to the home screen- Double-tap the home button to show the recent app list- Hold-down on Hero Academy (as though you're going to delete it, but just in the bottom app list)- Hit the Red Dash mark that appears in the corner of the app (this is how you force-kill iOS apps)- Start your music playing- Run Hero Academy

That's it! Enjoy

This game is super awesome, and I find that the Dark Elves (worth the $2, given how much fun I'm having playing the game, and it gets rid of the ads!) play sufficiently differently from the base set that it requires different strategies (as opposed to strategy games where the other type is just a different skin).Edit: Start games with me: FallenKwisatz (and send me a message telling me you're from Ars, if you want me to uhm... think you're extra cool, I suppose)

Not only that but does anyone know about similar game that already exist for Android? I really like asynchronous gameplay but so far the only game I've found is Words with Friends and it's beginning to wear a little thin.

Having a lot of fun with this since I read this review. The only complaint would have to be that the time-delay for "You can skip this ad in XX seconds..." slowly increases the longer you play. As I've only been playing for 24 hours and am at 6 seconds now, I suspect I'll be forced to buy the add-on.

This is a great game and it fits in perfectly with waiting for the kettle to boil, sitting in the train on the way to work or commercial breaks. I think a third team will be a welcome addition and will buy it as soon as possible. Watch out, the people playing listed in the GESC thread are getting pretty good.